In large enterprises, software is developed as a collaborative effort amongst a plurality of developers assigned to a specific software/application development project. For example, depending on the complexity of the software/application project, the team may include upwards of 20 or more developers, who work in parallel to develop the software. In worldwide enterprises, the team of developers may be spread across various locations, including different states and/or countries. Such software development, which includes multiple developers located in geographically different locations, poses many unique problems.
A typical software development environment necessitates a complex set-up in which the final production/use environment needs to be mimicked at the development level. In other words, developers need to develop the software/application in an environment that simulates the final production environment, for example, a web server environment. Such a final production/use environment provides for the software to be ready for use and hosted on remote servers.
In most software development environments each developer has their respective local computing device (i.e., personal computer, laptop or the like) configured with the same development software as all of the other developers working on a project. For example, the local computing devices may be configured as both an application development server to enable coding and an application deployment server that mimics the deployment environment and enables debugging of the application while the software/application is being developed. As changes are made to the software, the developer check-ins their respective changes to a central repository (i.e., source control system), which synchronizes the various updates/check-ins from the various developers and correlates the synchronized updates with a stored baseline version of the software/application being developed. When the developer desires to continue the development process, the developer check-outs, from the repository, the latest baseline version of the software/application, which reflects the latest check-ins.
However, creating a software development environment in which each local computing device is set-up to mimic the final production environment, i.e., act as a web server, is not only highly resource dependent but also poses significant problems from a risk standpoint. This is because, in a large enterprise different device-types are classified differently in terms of the rules and regulations that apply to the devices. Specifically, desktop computing devices or the like are governed by one set of rules/regulations, while enterprise class servers are governed by an entirely different set of rules/regulations. Such rules and regulations may affect which devices receive patches or updates, the timing for deploying patches/updates on a device and the like. If a developer's computing device, e.g., workstation/desktop or the like, is being used as a deployment/web server, the server component of the developer's computing device may not meet the rules and regulations required of a server, i.e., the server component may not receive patches/updates and/or may not receive patches/updates within requisite time periods. This is because the enterprise may, in certain instances, be unaware that the local computing device (e.g., desktop or the like) is acting as a server or, in other instances, due to rules/constraints, the enterprise may be unable to deploy server-type patches/updates in the local computing/desktop environment. As such, the overall enterprise network computing environment may be exposed to risk. Moreover, in large enterprises, in which the developers may be located in disparate locations, each location (e.g., state, country or the like) may have location-specific compliance regulations/requirements including, but not limited to, government and/or legal compliance regulations. However, if the enterprise is unaware of the location of the developer and/or the classification of the device on which the software development is occurring (e.g., local device having a server component), the enterprise incurs the risk that the compliance regulations/requirements are not being met.
As a means of overcoming the compliance regulations/requirements issues that are pervasive in an enterprise in which the software development is deployed locally on developer's computing devices, enterprises have created centrally located (i.e., network and/or cloud-based) software development environments. In such software development environments, remote developments servers are deployed and each developer working on a software/application development project log-ins or otherwise accesses the remote development server to develop the software/application. While such a centrally located software development environment is conducive to small development teams, when the development team consists of a large number of developers located worldwide inefficiencies (e.g., slow response time) result from multiple developers simultaneously accessing the remote development server. This is because each keystroke that a developer enters locally on their respective computing device needs to be replicated on the remote development server and the action corresponding to the keystroke needs to be taken prior to the server responding to the locally entered input.
Therefore, a need exists to develop systems, apparatus, methods and the like for remote software development that lessens the risk exposure of the enterprise or entity developing the software and provides for an efficient means for software/application development.